Man who claimed to have bomb near US Capitol surrenders to police
Fox News correspondent Mark Meredith has the latest on the standoff on 'America Reports'
The suspect who authorities say claimed to have a bomb in his pickup truck Thursday morning surrendered to police and is in their custody hours after parking his vehicle in front of Washington, D.C.'s Library of Congress – prompting evacuations and lockdowns in the area, Fox News can confirm.
The suspect, identified as North Carolina resident Floyd Ray Roseberry from Grover, was taken into custody at about 2:15 p.m. local time – approximately five hours after police received a report of a suspicious vehicle parked in the area of Independence Avenue and First Street, officials said. Federal and local investigators have already visited Roseberry's North Carolina home on Thursday, sources said.
United States Capitol (USCP) Chief Thomas Manger told reporters Roseberry got out of his vehicle and was taken into custody without incident shortly after negotiators delivered a phone to him so they could communicate. Manger said Roseberry had recently experienced "losses of family" and said investigators were in contact with his loved ones.
Police announced just after 4:30 p.m. that the vehicle had been cleared from the area.
Earlier in the day, the USCP had called it an "active bomb threat investigation." A House Republican communications director on the scene confirmed to Fox News that Capitol Police have warned them about a man who is "claiming to have explosives in his truck."
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The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) also responded to the scene.
During an earlier press briefing, Manger said police received a report around 9:15 a.m. of a man in a black pickup truck who drove onto the sidewalk in front of the Library of Congress. Police responded to a call for a disturbance, he said.
"The driver of the truck told the responding officer on the scene that he had a bomb. And what appeared, the officer said, appeared to be a detonator in the man's hand," Manger said. "We immediately evacuated the nearby buildings."
Manger said law enforcement was in communication with the suspect but did not yet know his motive. He did not answer a question regarding a live stream posted by an alleged suspect.
Police negotiators were communicating with him as he wrote notes and showed them to authorities from inside the truck, the Capitol Police said. Officers gave him a phone in an effort to continue communication with him.
"My negotiators are hard at work trying to have a peaceful resolution to this incident," Manger said. "We're trying to get as much information as we can to find a way to peacefully resolve this."
The USCP announced the suspicious activity on its Twitter page just after 9:40 a.m. local time and urged people to stay away from the area.
Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo tweeted that investigators "are trying to determine whether the suspicious device in the pickup truck is an operable explosive and whether the man in the truck was holding a detonator."
Aaron Fritschner, communications director for Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., shared on Twitter screenshots of message alerts he had received from the police agency. One message sent at 9:53 a.m. states, "Madison: Internal Security Threat: move inside office/lock doors, seek cover, and remain silent."
A subsequent message said: "Jefferson: EVACUATE. Proceed to your designated assembly area. DO NOT exit out of the west side (First Street) of the building."
Other areas in the region were also ordered to evacuate to neighboring buildings, Fox News has learned, but the entire Capitol was not locked down. The city's Metropolitan Police Department was canvassing certain nearby neighborhoods asking residents to evacuate, the department said.
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Police have said the investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, many lawmakers are out of the area for their August recess.
Fox News’ Tyler Olson and Kelly Phares contributed to this report, as well as The Associated Press.
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